From the value investor's perspective, Atrion stands out as a reliably impressive performer considering its very healthy ROE, ROA, 5 year trailing earnings growth, and quick ratio. It's an attractive small-cap with lots of room for upward growth. It makes sense to buy if your required return is < 20%.

This pick on July2012 has a great valuation, great free cash flow, great valuation, relatively stable valuations and are not part of the financial sector.Additionally there are quite a few short sellers jumping on this stock who need to at some point cover their shares & buyback this stock.Market beaters list:tickers making this cut: BG,ATRI,NHC,KELYA,ALCO,FF,ACET,MOLX,SUP,YORW

Atrion Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and distributes products and components for the medical and healthcare industry. Now don't get confused by their business description. They are not a pharmaceutical company, but they make medical equipment. On that note it is not the high tech, cutting edge equipment that is going to have a robot replace someone’s heart. Atrion make things like the line that connects the IV bag to a person’s arm, and catheters for patient use. So if you think about it, this company seems sort of boring, but that is what is great about it as well. There is only one way to get a person hydrated when they are unable to drink and that is through an IV, and the only way to get the IV fluid into a person is through Atrion's tube. It’s genius. Now that we talked about what exactly they do, let me explain what makes this company really fantastic for the investor. $0 LONG TERM DEBT. No joke, this company really has $0 long term debt, if you don't believe me look at it for yourself. Look at their assets $115,353,000 vs. their liabilities as well $14,511,000, it’s a sweet deal. Seriously though people this company is great for actual investing. On updown.com it’s not great due to the low volume traded, but if you are not trading and actually trying to invest this is the company for you.